Saturday, June 11, 2005

Law lord says UK and US tried to bend international law with Belmarsh and Guantánamo detentions. One of Britain's most eminent judges yesterday accused the British and US governments of whipping up public fear of terrorism, and of being determined "to bend established international law to their will and to undermine its essential structures".

Lord Steyn, one of the longest-serving law lords in Britain's top court, the House of Lords, made the accusation while delivering his first public comments on the lords' ruling in the Belmarsh case.~Lord Steyn's remarks yesterday came a day after a damning report from the Council of Europe's committee for the prevention of torture, which concluded that the treatment of some detainees "could be considered as amounting to inhuman and degrading treatment".~He added: "Nobody doubts in any way the very real risk of international terrorism. But the Belmarsh decision came against the public fear whipped up by the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom since September 11 2001 and their determination to bend established international law to their will and to undermine its essential structures."

Nobody doubts in any way the very real risk of international terrorism???